Nichols: We had our moments and Hogan Sheffer [former head writer] was putting a lot of energy into us. Hogan did research and watched the early shows from our first run. He told Mary Beth and I that, to his eye, it was the best stuff ever on daytime. The trouble was, he was the only one doing the research.

Sheffer replaced several veteran DAYS writers with his ATWT buddies so he's not blameless in this area.